Quote of the Week
Can you imagine a managing partner at a big firm saying this as he or she moves the firm to value billing?
I’m sure mistakes will be made along the way. I’m sure that there will be surprises. I’m sure we will have to do quite a bit of adjusting to make the program a win win for all involved. So what ? If it works, everyone, particularly consumers benefit. If it doesn’t, everyone calls me a dumbass, and we go back to doing it the way it was always done. I can handle that. Mark Cuban, talking about shaking up the movie business.
Quote of the Week
This one is mine:
I’d rather fail at something I love, than fail at something I hate.
Quote of the Week
Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there. — Josh Billings (Thanks to Getting Things Done – The Broad View for the quote)
Quote of the Week
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. – Sir Winston Churchill.
Quote of the Week
My friend Todd at A Penny For... posted this great quote today by E.B. White:
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.
Amen.
Worthwhile's Thought for the Day
This great quote from Richard Koch (author of The 80/20 Principle) comes courtesy of Worthwhile:
People put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. Pursue those few things where you are amazingly better than most others and that you enjoy the most.
Quote of the Week
"I've found my niche. If you're wondering why I'm not there, there was this little hole in the bottom..." John Croll (Thanks to Tom Asacker at acleareye.com).
Let me tell you a story...
Jon Strande, one of this week's Five by Five contributors has started the StoryBlog -- a repository of stories for use in presentations. The blog is pretty new, but has some great stories on it already. My favorite comes from Nerio Vakil: :
This happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so. But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc. but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line. Moral of the story: "Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem and learn to focus on solutions not on problems."
How Not to Write Like a Lawyer
The following passage is a direct quote from a proposed Order we received in the office yesterday. It was drafted by a real attorney:
Matter comes now for discovery management, by stipulation and agreement of the parties, Attorney X for the Plaintiff and Defendant Y, Pro Se. The Court is advised and notes Y's substitution as Defendant in this matter by operation of law pertaining to Lis Pendens heretofore recorded with regard to this matter by Plaintiff. Thereafter, by agreement of parties herein, and in supplement of the Court's docket Order of April ___, 2004. It is Hereby Ordered: ...
Seriously.
A Great Top Ten List
Jeremy's Weblog has the "Top Ten Signs You've Been A Lawyer Too Long." My favorites:
10. You're planning on watching 0.8 hours of TV tonight followed by 1.2 hours of pleasurable reading.
8. You tell your parents they can no longer tell you what to do because you're in a different jurisdiction.
2. Your trash talk repertoire includes the line, "You are my wholly-owned subsidiary."
Quote of the Week
"People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." - Unknown (via Mariano Delle Donne's Blog)
Quote of the Week
"Having met some successful people, I can assure you that they didn't get that way by deserving it." - Seth Godin from this post.
Quote of the Week
The best swordsman in the world does not need to fear the second best swordsman, but the man ignorant of swords and knowledgeable about gun-powder. Mark Twain.
Correction. Reader Jack Moore writes, "A favorite of mine, too, but not exactly a direct quote. The actual quote is from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court:
[T]here are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot.
Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Chapter XXXIV)"
Quote of the Week
Saw this quote on Evelyn Rodriguez's Crossroads Dispatches:
"A Native American Elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: 'Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time.' When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, 'The one I feed the most." -- Original Source Unknown
Quote of the Week
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. -- Arthur Ashe
Quote of the Week
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." -- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
This one comes courtesy of Evelyn Rodriguez and her great blog Crossroads Dispatches.
Quote of the Day
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow, study as if you were to live forever." Thomas More
Quote of the Week
The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas. Albert Einstein
Quote of the Week.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters comapred to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson